Sunday, March 27, 2011

“No one in Maspeth—no one in Queens—was ever informed that this site was being considered by the administration or by the MTA,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, whose district includes Maspeth. “They thought they could slip this by in secrecy, and it's an outrage.”

Queens Side. The mayor's standard operating land use procedure of not consulting communities has reached a boiling point in Maspeth Queens. On March 4, 2011 Council members Jimmy Van Bramer, Elizabeth Crowley and Assemblywoman Marge Markey joined local residents to denounce the MTA's plan to relocate a depot from Greenpoint Brooklyn to Masbeth Queens. (Photo: By Mitch Waxman)

The Greenpoint community in Brooklyn has long been promised a 2 acre waterfront park at an MTA despot at 65 Commercial Street as part of a 2005 Rezoning Agreement which allowed the building of luxury waterfront condo towers. In order to accommodate the park the MTA has plans to move the 150-vehicle bus despot to 49th Street and Galasso Place in park-starved Maspeth Queens. The MTA had initially rejected the site last year due to environmental concerns. The Bloomberg administration however didn't bother to inform the Queens side of its intent to move the garage to Masbeth. The council members in the area were not contacted and neither was the community board. They were notified of this plan by reading it in the newspapers.

“I am outraged and livid that the City of New York would attempt to sneak a depot into Maspeth,” Council member Jimmy Van Bramer said. “It has been a deceitful lack of process for an administration that claims to be about transparency and good government. There has been nothing even remotely close to good government about this horrible, reckless and dangerous decision to move a depot into Maspeth.”

“Now they're doing a land swap here so that someone else can get a park? It doesn't seem fair,” said Christina Wilkinson, a board member of Communities of Maspeth & Elmhurst Together, or “Comet.” - Geoffrey Croft

Brooklyn/Queens

Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Maspeth, Queens, are less than three miles apart, but they're on far-opposite sides of a property dispute.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been thinking of moving a 150-vehicle bus garage from the waterfront in Greenpoint to an industrial location in Maspeth. At least that was the idea until earlier this month, when local Queens politicians caught wind of the plan, according to Crain's New York Business.

“No one in Maspeth—no one in Queens—was ever informed that this site was being considered by the administration or by the MTA,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, whose district includes Maspeth. “They thought they could slip this by in secrecy, and it's an outrage.”

The MTA must move the Greenpoint facility, which services Access-A-Ride vans and sedans, because the two acres it sits on at 65 Commercial St. is slated to be transformed into a handsome city park under a 2005 waterfront rezoning plan.

Several other spots that the agency considered did not work out, and Greenpointers lost patience with what some call classic agency foot-dragging.

District Leader Lincoln Restler organized a protest at the MTA facility last month to bring renewed attention to the missing park.

CITY HALL'S FAULT

In its defense, the MTA pins the blame squarely on the city.

“We agreed to move away from Greenpoint provided that City Hall can provide us with an alternative site that's ready to use immediately, that's centrally located and has the appropriate space for storage,” said an MTA spokesman.

When word got out in late February that the city and MTA had found such a place, an industrial lot on the corner of 49th Street and Galasso Place in Maspeth, the reaction was swift and fierce.

Days later, Mr. Van Bramer held a press conference to denounce the proposed move. Meanwhile, state Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr. wrote an open letter to MTA Chairman Jay Walder in the Queens Ledger asking the agency to find another site and chastising the good people of Greenpoint.

“While I understand the desire of residents ... to enhance green space in their neighborhood, transferring the depot to Maspeth would be a most unfair solution,” Mr. Addabbo wrote, pointing out that it already has two bus depots and severe traffic congestion.

Brooklyn Side. "This Is Our Park." On February 15, 2011 park proponents held a rally at 65 Commercial Street and posted a notice of eviction to the MTA to protest years of delays in building the greenspace. The city promised a park at this site when the area was rezoned in 2005 to allow for luxury waterfront condo towers. The city pledged to create five parks in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, but all the projects have been plagued by delays.Councilman Steve Levin (D-Greenpoint) said the rezoning has brought a flood of new residents and rising rents - but not the promised open space. He wrote to MTA Chairman Jay Walder urging him to resolve the impasse on Commercial St. "The Williamsburg-Greenpoint community has been forced to wait far too long for construction to begin on this park," he said. (Photo: Sarah Baker)

Perhaps so, Brooklyn leaders say, but the Maspeth space is in an area already zoned for industrial use, unlike the Greenpoint spot, which is designated for a park.

All the talk about parks is going down poorly in Maspeth, which has green dreams of its own.

In fact, across the train tracks from the proposed MTA facility stands a vacant lot of the former St. Saviour's church. Civic groups and Queens politicians have been trying unsuccessfully for years to persuade the city to make the spot a park.

“We suggested a land-swap arrangement years ago for the city to obtain the St. Saviour's property in order to get a park, and the city wasn't interested,” said Christina Wilkinson, a board member of Communities of Maspeth & Elmhurst Together, or “Comet.”

“Now they're doing a land swap here so that someone else can get a park? It doesn't seem fair.”

PROMISES, PROMISES

Though Comet typically focuses on quality-of-life issues—ranging from graffiti to illegal passenger vans—it has made the MTA bus garage and the park at St. Saviour's two of its main concerns.

“I'm sure there's plenty of land in Brooklyn that the MTA and the city can swap for their park instead of bringing the depot here,” Ms. Wilkinson said.

Some in Queens now think that the war of words is starting to go their way.

“I understand that the administration made a promise that they would move the depot,” said Mr. Van Bramer. “But don't punish Maspeth because you need to fulfill promises made in other parts of the city.”

As of last week, an MTA spokesman confirmed that the Maspeth site is being considered as an alternative to Greenpoint and added that the agency remains open to other options.